Housing Options

Find your favorite corner café, the boulangerie with the perfect baguette, and learn the details of your arrondisement. Your living arrangements are the gateway to a truly immersive experience in Paris! Discovering the everyday life of the French and enriching your knowledge of the language and customs is one of the best ways to understanding this new culture. APA provides two housing options to choose from for your stay in Paris.

Homestay

It is not uncommon for students to say that their homestay is the best part of their time in Paris! APA takes the prospect of pairing students with the best possible host family seriously. Detailed housing questionnaires are reviewed when making the match that take into account but are not limited to personality, family dynamic, extracurricular activities, independence, dietary restrictions, and religion. Students settle in with their host families three days after their arrival in Paris in order to provide the APA Paris staff a brief period to confirm the best match has been made between students and host families.

All homestays offer students a private bedroom and daily breakfast. Homestay options and fees will differ based on the number of dinners a student would like to share with their host family. Meal plans do not include school holidays and breaks.

Each French host is thoroughly interviewed and vetted based on their background, location and accommodations, and willingness to welcome and integrate a foreign student into their daily lives. Only one student is paired with each host to ensure we are providing everyone with an authentic and quality French living experience.

“ What will always stand out for me about my study abroad experience is my host family. I got to live with two of the kindest souls I've ever met, and they became like parents to me: when I left Paris, they told me that they had come to think of me as their adoptive daughter. Their family was such a great fit for me, and they will always be my fondest memory of Paris. And I would never have met them if it weren't for APA: their housing questionnaire was so extensive that I knew I would be paired with a family that suited my needs, and upon my arrival in Paris, they took the time to get to know me in person to make sure they had made the right choice.”

Sage, Bryn Mawr College, Fall 2015

Independent Living

APA-Arranged Foyer

For a different way to discover French culture, students have the option of staying in a French student residence or “foyer”. These residences are typically laid out with a common area and communal kitchen on the ground floor and private bedrooms and bathrooms above. Foyers are located in nearly every arrondisement in Paris. Partial meal plans are often available at student residences and provide a great way to meet your neighbors!

In this independent living arrangement, APA will find a room for you at a foyer cutting out the online application process. But hurry, it is the student's responsibility to ultimately reserve the room by sending a security deposit to the foyer. Rooms in foyers are limited and therefore in high demand so it is important to lock in your room quickly before it is released to another tenant. Students are then responsible for on-time, monthly rent payments to the foyer once in Paris.

Student-Arranged Apartment

This housing option is only available for Paris Advanced program students. Securing housing arrangements in a studio or one-bedroom apartment other than a foyer around the city can be difficult though still possible. This independent living option puts the student in control and he or she is responsible for finding housing and making payments to the landlord.

Since Paris is a large metropolitan area, rents are oftentimes more expensive, may require an in-country guarantor, and may not provide amenities such as WiFi. APA can recommend locations during the search process however, it is ultimately the student’s full responsibility to find accommodations and to settle all financial commitments and meals.